Treatment Available for Facial Paralysis

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Treatment Available for Facial Paralysis
January 14, 2009
Air Force Print News|by Lt. Col. Lesa Spivey

SAN ANTONIO - Patients seeking help for facial paralysis have a new treatment option available now offered by doctors at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Col. (Dr.) Alan Holck and Maj. (Dr.) Manuel Lopez are among only a few military or civilian surgeons in the country who perform a recently developed procedure called temporalis tendon transfer to treat patients suffering from facial paralysis due to conditions such as trauma, tumors, strokes, cancer, some surgeries and Bell's palsy.

The only other physicians who offer this treatment practice at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The temporalis tendon transfer surgery can be performed in cases where injury to the facial nerve cannot be repaired or the nerve will not naturally recover. The procedure is relatively simple and straight forward. Only taking about 90 minutes to perform using one small incision (three centimeters), the surgery involves taking the muscle (the temporalis tendon) that controls movement and clinching of the jaw and re-inserting it into the musculature of the mouth (corner of the mouth) to restore movement and function.

The process of this dynamic muscle transfer is a promising option for facial reanimation in patients for whom nerve repair, grafting and nerve transfer are not possible.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/air-force-news/treatment-available-for-facial-paralysis.html?col=1186032369229